Mouse on a Mission
by Rat Mouse
Summary: An antisocial girl with a couple odd fears and a few strange quirks gets flung into the middle of her favourite books and has to make do.
1. Damn Puppets

Firstly, my apologies for Mouse's tendency to ramble and get off point. I do it to and sometimes can't help myself. 

Disclaimer: the books, place and characters (that wont be present all that much) that are obviously hers belong to Mercedes Lackey and most assuredly are not mine. However, Mouse is mine as well as a few other fellows that will show up later because I don't like using other people's characters all too much for fear of portraying them wrong. No using of my people!

Warning: if homosexuality offends you in any way shape or form don't read further (though I don't know why you are reading this at all since Mrs. Lackey uses same sex quite frequently in her books) and I might recommend getting your closed minded self smacked over the head with a good two by four. Also some language. 

Onward! *points*

------

"Hey, Mouse, go get me two 30 foot extension cables from storage would ya?" hollered a voice from the grid that I knew to belonged to Ryan. 

"Yeah" I hollered back up all the while grumbling under my breath. I tended to get most of the crap jobs, but I knew why: I was new, I was quiet, and I would do them because I knew they had to get done. The last one was in my favour but I still didn't have to like running errands for the others. I wasn't even an electrician, but at least I knew what he wanted which was more than I could say about some people I had worked with. I shuttered at the memory of a girl that didn't even know what a screwdriver was, let alone the fact that she needed a philips and not a flathead.

"I'll help" came another voice as the dark haired man that it was owned by jumped up and ran over to where I had been making my way to storage. 

"Thanks, Jerr" I mumbled, not waiting but making my steady way to the stairs that would lead me to the room I wanted. Granted I wasn't unhappy by the offer or help I just didn't think that hauling the two cables back up the stairs and in turn up to the grid warranted the help he offered. 

Stopping in front of a uniform brown looking door I pulled the open padlock off and went searching in the storage room for the requested cables.

About five minutes and a thousand dust motes later we found the cables in a box, under two rolls of 15 foot cable and a roll of 50 foot cable. Just like the rest of the theatre oh so cleverly organized with a system that no one had as of yet been able to figure out. 

"I'll take them, you put that stuff back" Jerr told me pointing to the excess wires. I only sighed, I was back to being a lackey...a very dusty lackey at the moment. I think that the last time the theatre had been cleaned was sometime in the early 70s, the dirt was thick enough anyways and seemed to float up out of nowhere whenever you moved. 

Carefully recoiling the cords I placed a cable back into the box when I heard the door click shut not so subtlety. Okay...that was weird. Okay I was fine with this. I took a deep breath. So long as the lights were still on I was okay. So much for my luck, the lights flicked off. I tended to have that kind of luck.

"Jerr this isn't funny!"

I got up and carefully wove my way though the mess with a little help from my exceptional night vision and the light trickling in through the door cracks.

"I mean it Jerr! Turn the lights back on!" My hand made contact with the door and, after some fumbling, wound it's way around the handle. 

Thunk..... Thunk Thunk. It was locked. It was locked and dark and I was in a tiny room with boxes of who knew what and most likely a couple of puppets lying around somewhere. I had a deathly fear of puppets that I never could figure out, not to mention a fear of confined spaces.

"This isn't funny! Let me out!" I bellowed with my only reply being a snicker from the other side of the door.

"Have fun, Mouse" the carpenter chortled as I watched the shadow of feet move away.

"DON'T DO THIS!" Thunk Thunk "LET ME OUT!" Thunk Thunk "JERREMIAH BARTHOLOMEW WINSLOW LET ME OUT OF HERE THIS INSTANT! IT"S NOT FUNNY!" Thunk

I think that that was the loudest I had ever uttered anything in my entire life.

This truly wasn't funny, ever since the others had found out that I was afraid of small spaces I had been the object of no small amount of teasing, the teasing I could handle, but not this. It wasn't so much as I was afraid of small spaces as I was afraid of closed spaces, spaces that I couldn't get out of. Okay, so I was a little claustrophobic, I delt with it, all it ment that I didn't like closed spaces....and I was afraid of puppets...

There were puppets in here. I whirled around and looked frantically to the piles of stuff hidden in shadows, there were puppets everywhere in this theatre. 

Alright breath, I consoled myself, they have to let me out sometime, they need me to help set up for the show. Taking slow deep breaths I lowered my hand to my belt, or my batman utility belt as I fondly liked to call it, and pulled out my small maglight. At least I didn't have to sit here in complete darkness. And at least I could see it when the puppets tried to sneak up on me. Those puppets were damn sneaky at times and I didn't like it one bit. 

Okay, now I had light, I admit it was a kind of creepy blue light because of the gel I had placed on my flashlight for shows, but it was a light. 

Too bad the door locked by padlock and the hinges were on the outside, I forlornly fingered the velcro on my gerber satchel, if it were the other way around I could have easily gotten out before Jerr felt the need to unlock me. I knew how to pick locks like any good theatre person did, unscrew the doorknob or take out the hinge pins, both would get you out. Then again, I also knew how to lock doors with pennies.

Too bad for me because I was just to the point right before a major panic attack.

It was closed, It was dark, There were puppets, and I was alone. Did I mention these sort of things are easier to handle when there's someone else around to distract me?

Not good for a mouse, especially a mouse on her way to hyperventilating.

Take a deep breath. One two three. I closed my eyes hoping that it would make it better, I knew it wouldn't help much, but I was hoping. If wishes were fishes they say, now I don't know who says that but apparently it's been said. 

So there I was locked, sitting in a dark room trying not to scream and resort to curling up in the fetal position while crying incoherently when the randomness of my mind suddenly remembered something. This was storage two. The one right by the basement entrance. The one where a couple of people stowed their stuff while they were working upstairs. The one where I stored my stuff with the rest of them while I was working upstairs. 

That could only mean... My left hand reached out and pulled back a cloth strap that attached itself to my shoulderbag. At least I could have something to take my mind off of my situation. I stuck my hand into it, headless of the dangers of doing so (my bag had been known to demolish anything that, to some ill luck of that object, had gotten placed inside it. The bag was a virtual black hole.) And brought out a black book that appeared as if it had once seen better days and had been loved far beyond the bounds of repair. Ahhh...my savior, Magic's Pawn. Despite the fact that I had read this book an innumerable amount of times and could probably quote it just as well as any movie I had seen (I was known for being able to quote a movie only after viewing it once despite the fact that I generally couldn't remember where I set my sneakers.) I could still become lost within the folds of it's pages, and, hopefully, I could do that now. I really did not need to be thinking about where I was sitting or what the surrounding crates might be holding. This was the perfect distraction. It would be just as if I were backstage during a show with my trusty blue maglight gliding over the words I already knew so well. After all I had probably gotten more reading done backstage between shifts than I had any other time, not that I didn't read enough any other time though.   


//... "_You take that back, you little bastard!" Tylendel roared. "You take that back, unless you want another pound of mud shoved down your throat!"  
Savil steeled herself and barked-in her best stop-a-mob-in-full-cry voice-a single word._

"ENOUGH!"

_Instantly the fighters froze._

_Savil strode out into the deluge, her dignity somewhat diminished when her feet squelched instead of coming down firmly, and the rain immediately plastered her hair to her skull, sending tendrils of it straggling into her eyes and mouth._

_Nevertheless, she reckoned she looked imposing enough, since all the blabbering behind her ceased as she reached the edge of Tylendel's mage-barrier and stopped. _

_"Take it down, trainee," she said, her tone so cold it could have turned the rain into snow._

_Tylendel scrambled to his feet and dismissed the barrier. Now that he could be seen clearly, he truly looked as if he's been through the wars. His hair was full of mud and straggling around his face in dirty coils. One eye was turning black and starting to swell; his lower lip was split and bleeding. His tunic was torn and muddy and so were his breeches; one of his boots had come unlaced and sagged around his ankle. He wore a very un-Tylendel-like expression; sullen and full of barely-smothered anger._

_Vanyel remained prone for several moments longer with his chest heaving as he gulped for air; long enough that Savil began to think he might_ really _be hurt_...//  
  
I grinned to myself thinking about how worried Savil was and how the two tried to coddle each other after they had gotten away from prying eyes when a slight scratching sound at the back of the storeroom made me start and look up, not that I could see much but it was a natural reaction. 

The noise came again and I got hesitantly to my feet wondering if the theatre had another mouse besides myself. 

Scritch. Scritch.

I started walking over to it, my hand on my knife just in case. Just like my namesake I was too curious to let the noise pass, that and I think I get a thrill out of being scared shitless..go figure. Too bad I'm a bit special and despite my extraordinary night vision I had terrible depth perception that only got worse as it got darker. (Hey! At least I figured out why I had such a problem hitting a baseball.) I neatly tripped over the corner of my bag and hit one of the shelves sending something crashing down upon me and my flashlight to the floor. And even more unfortunately for me that light landed in a way that it shown upon me and what had attacked me. 

Letting out a blood curdling scream I threw the marionette off me and fell backwards into a pile of unused drapings. Scrambling as fast as I could I overturned an unused box over it and thunked a sandbag atop it. At least it couldn't get out now. Puppets were shifty like that and tended to come back when you least expected it. 

I sure hoped that those upstairs had heard my scream and had been scared out of their wits by it, serve them right for locking me in here with those.........puppets. I knew that if they had heard me they would at the very least try to do something about it. My screams had that kind of moving power, granted I had only ever screamed once before like that and it had been at the order of a drama instructor during a workshop. I knew then that I had most likely scared over half the building and elicited an applause fallowed with compliments on the greatness of it. Too bad this time I hadn't covered my ears and they were still ringing a bit. 

The sound came again and screams were forgotten as I gathered up my maglight and my shoulderbag just incase some of the puppets got any idea about it, though I doubted that they would survive the black hole if they fell into it, and more carefully this time made my way over to the back right-hand corner of the room.

Scritch. Scritch. It sounded again.

It was coming from an old battered trunk with brass corners and a lock with the curious initials A. F. C. inscribed above it in swooping gold lettering. Curious. I didn't remember that trunk from the last time I hade been in here, granted there was a lot of stuff in the dark room that I didn't know of, but the trunk was rather nice and in a style that I particularly enjoyed. 

Scritch. Scritch.

That damn noise just wouldn't leave me alone! So, clenching my maglight with one hand I gently lifted the trunk lid with the other. Light seeped out of the ever growing crack as I opened it in a furious rush like the light itself was trying to consume the darkness and chase every shadow away. The lid wasn't even halfway up when I noted an odd shaped ball of glowing orange, then the light overtook every and everything went white.


	2. Always Carry Rope

Sorry for everything being so short..I haven't had as much Time as I'd like to work on stories...that and writer's block....you know..it's distracting... 

-----------------

Light everywhere, surrounding me in all sense to the point where I could taste it and hear it. Then there was nothing. Then slowly, ever so slowly so that it seemed to creep in backwards a blackness overcame me and then sounds ever so softly filtered in until the cautious brightness that always permeated in a gentle orangish yellow light through my closed eyelids revealed itself. 

"Ugh...what happened" I groaned vaguely remembering something about a smug looking cat and hoped to some foreign deity that I hadn't landed on anything important when I had fallen. Yes I figured out that I had sometime during the light, darkness, and regaining my senses fallen. I was now lying sprawled out on my back on something just a little bit soft telling me that I had definitely not landed upon the cement flooring of the storage room that I had mercilessly been locked in. 

Wait....go back. Light filtered in through my closed eyelids. Since when had the light been turned back on?!?

Those same eyelids flew open in astonishment to peer at a near perfect blue sky with two annoyingly fluffy white clouds perched in it. Without moving my head yet I could lightly see the faint forms of towering trees and the hovering form of some kind of bird, maybe a hawk I thought, I had never been too good at telling species from close range let alone the distance there was now. Alright, now how did that happen? Since when did I get outside and since when did we have trees? 

I sat up which was a mistake because my head started to spin in a way which I can only remember having had once when I had been sick for nearly an entire summer. I certainly didn't want to be here, where ever here was, at this moment as I held my head for a moment resting my forehead upon my upbent knees. Okay, I could breath again and slowly lifted my head to get a better view of my new surroundings. I was sitting in a meadow, surrounded by trees and after a bit of looking saw what might have been a game trail in a break in those trees. All in all not much help and I was still left curiously wondering how on earth I had gotten here in the first place, there weren't even any parks with this many tree in a 20 mile radius of the theatre. So it came back to my first question, where in bloody hell was I? 

I don't like being lost. I don't like being lost, it was almost as bad as puppets but puppets were just creepy and wanted to steel my soul while being lost held a whole new set of problems, mainly it made me panic faster and made me want to cry (not that crying ever did anything to help).

I just still didn't like being lost. Somehow I think it all stemmed from my separation anxiety when I went into kindergarten because unlike most little children I had never gotten lost in a store, I always made sure that my tiny hands where cemented to my mother in some way shape or form usually the form of hanging on for dear life to the back of her shirt. I had always been a clingy little kid and didn't like being separated from people or going places alone. To this day the only place I ever really went to alone to was the grocery store to buy food. I didn't shop alone, I didn't go out to eat alone, and I generally didn't go anywhere else public alone.

So all in all my situation was not good and with the way I saw it I had two real options. Stay where I was and hope against hope that someone would happen by and tell me where I was, or I could wonder around looking for some sort of sign of people until I either found it or it got dark. Neither of them looked pleasant and either way I had to either find shelter or interact with strange people. So guess which of the smart ideas I chose? I lumbered up from my position on the ground and was about to head off towards what looked to be a game trail when I noticed something else. Whoever had brought me here had also brought my bag with me and now at least I had a bit more to use than what I had first thought. I now had some food with me and a bag that I could put anything that seemed edible that came across, also I now had my jacket for if it got colder once darkness started to fall, a box of matches, a small sewing kit, and lastly I had a sort length of rope (yes I carry rope in my shoulderbag, quit raising that eyebrow) that I could use to help hold an erected shelter together. In addition to all this, I realized then, I also had the continence of my handy dandy batman utility belt, flashlights and knives were a definite plus. All quite helpful, and even if it wasn't it made me feel a little bit better to know that I still had my sketchbook with me. Remember that separation anxiety? Well my sketchbook is a bit like a security blanket, I keep it with me at all times. Where I go it goes too. It's been to over 20 states and three different countries and now where ever we were. So yes I was now a bit happier. Anyways I of course picked it up and hefted it over my shoulder then set off again fallowing the well worn path and hoping against hope that I found someone (though part of me prayed that I didn't because I was never that great at interacting with them). 

------------------


	3. The Grass Likes Me

Nother bit...yes yes, I know, Delays delays...*points* I blame the concussion... 

-----------------

Mmm...trees lots of trees and oo look! A river! Yay for water. Well I don't know about you but apparently it's good to have water when you're wondering about in some trees, not that I had anything to boil the water in and therefore wouldn't drink it but still,....I could go swimming. 

Okay, I moved on from the river towards what appeared to be an opening in the trees that had sprung up about me when I hadn't noticed. Yes! I had defiantly found an opening I noted proudly as I reached it and immediately squinted in the bright sun that danced in my face and I emerged from within the shadows of the surrounding trees. Okay, so it wasn't exactly brilliantly bright sunshine but it still hurt my sensitive eyes so one eye closed while the other squinted effectively letting me see through what most wouldn't have wanted to. But that still didn't stop me from running right into a big white thing that had suddenly popped up infront of me. 

Ker thud. Mm..I'm beginning to think that I should save myself the trouble of falling next time and just sit here for the rest of the day. Screw trying to find someone, the grass apparently wanted my company more. 

So me being the tiniest bit curious as to what had sent me to the ground this time I looked up only to come face to face with the deepest bluest eyes that I had ever seen. Eyes that happened to be attached to a big white horsey face with the rest of the creature following, staring down at me curiously. It blinked. I blinked back. Then it shook it's head and looked at me as if to say 'what are you doing here?'. Not that it did, but my imagination works fine, thank you. 

I edged away. Big things made me uncomfortable especially if those big things were horses. I had never particularly like the creatures ever since the first time I had ridden one and somehow ended up in a lake. To say the least it wasn't among my favourite experiences. 

So after we finished exchanging 'what are you doing here and why aren't you running in terror' looks I had finally regained my wits and mumbled a "did you get the licence plate of that penguin that hit me?" as I unwisely stood up and dusted myself off. Not that my pants weren't already completely grubby and dust covered before I had fallen for the second time, though there was grass in my hair. But that's a given considered that my hair liked to eat things..you know, things...raisins, small forest animals, children, my friend Ben's hand... Hey! Don't look at me like that! It's not my fault he was feeding it raisins, I told him not to feed it but he wouldn't listen. So after my hair was de-weeded I promptly got a white runny nose shoved in my face. Thump. And I was back on the ground. Yep, really considering sitting here for the rest of the day and saving myself another trip to the grass. 

"What do you want horse!?" I demanded of it peevishly while blowing a stray strand of hair out of my eyes. It, being a horse just looked at me and snorted. If I didn't know better I would say that it was laughing at me. 

"Great" I grumbled to myself "stuck in the middle of a nowhere that can't exist in a place that I know talking to a crazy horse that does nothing but laugh at me..Some help you are!" The white creature snorted again and promptly started munching my hair. There's that laughter again. 

"I wouldn't do that if I were you" I told it crossly trying to pull my poor abused hair out of reach "It likes to eat things.." The horse then decided that my clothing was much better tasting, what with all the paint, grease, and sawdust hovering between the fibers why wouldn't it be, so it started to nibble at my shirt. "Stupid horse" It reminded me of a dog that I once had, it would eat anything including my broccoli stems. I loved him, yes, but he was about the stupidest animal I had ever known. 100 pounds and it was still afraid of cats. 

Hey wait....I thought my butt was thoroughly planted in the grass and mud, I was now standing upon my feet where the horse had pulled me and stumbling after it seeing as it still had a hold of my dingy shirt. Great! Now I'm in the middle of nowhere being kidnaped by a white horse that likes to laugh at me. Yes, this wasn't exactly my day, I should have known when I woke up and couldn't find the alarm clock that had started beeping. Bad omen that. 

------------------


	4. Utah is Awsome

yay..time to write means faster updates...so yeah..here's a little bit more...It's only about half the chapter though...and it's getting put up now because I'm impatient...so..yeah.. 

-----------------

Following the unreasonably colorless horse out from the massive trees I stared, I couldn't help it. Since when was there a fair stop near us? I was, to say the least, a bit more confused than before. I, or rather my fuzzy white kidnapper has found civilization, at last, and all that I encountered was what appeared to be some kind of conveniently placed renaissance fair, though I must say that it seemed quite permanent and not at all like any of the fairs I had encountered. There were people working in fields of wheat and corn and other things that I was never quite sure of what they were with tools that hadn't been used like this for quite some years. Beyond that was a town constructed of wood and stone with thatched roofs and the like, definitely a bit of a change from the brick and cement buildings and paved roads lined with cars and trucks that I was so used to seeing. I was no longer in Kansas anymore. Toto, I think we've managed to land on mars. That reminds me I needed to get a pet. No the horse didn't count. I, unfortunately, never was the child that wanted a pony, I've always wanted a rat or a snake. Go being abnormal. 

So after a bit more staring and a lot more woolgathering I came to my senses, or more accurately the creature beside me pushed me with it's nose, and made my move, around the fields. I wasn't quite sure I wanted to go into that town and hadn't yet made a decision to run back into the woods with my tail between my legs like a scared puppy, though I suspected that my abductor would hardly allow that. 

With more than a couple more insistent nudged from the slightly abusive being now trailing behind me I slowly decided it would be far less painful for me to head towards town no matter how many qualms I had about going into it. 

As I got closer I was suddenly entirely uncomfortable for an extremely different reason. I wouldn't be able to hide like I usually did from what I could see. 

Here is what I saw, women wearing long possibly skirts, vests, or stays, or corsets over a long shift or blouses. Men wearing trousers and shirts with large sleeves and vests and coats and boots. Things that I certainly couldn't even pretend to fit in with my torn, patched, and paint filled old jeans and old t-shirt proclaiming that Utah was in fact awesome that I had stolen from my dad's closet years ago all brought together with my severely worn sneakers that had holes in the sides, duct tape holding the strings together, paint dripped on them a few places and writing all over the sides of the soles. Surely not the best of clothes to be wearing even in today's society. Then again I never had cared for the latest fashions. Though the longer that I thought about it the more I began to suspect that my bag still had an extra pair of clothes in it. The shirt within it was no better than the one I was wearing as it proclaimed that cheese was good but if I remembered correctly I had a vest in there too. As fast as I could, without falling completely over for the umpteenth time today, I swung my bag off my shoulder, plopped it upon the ground, and began rooting through it only to bring out a gray woolen vest that I had swiped from an old suit of my dad's that he didn't wear anymore and was going to give away. (I get a lot of my clothes from him, or as hand me downs or from thrift stores, either way they've generally already been worn. The only things I get new are sometimes jeans (scary how I can fit into my dad's old ones) and undergarments!). Score! The vest made me feel slightly better because it ment that I wouldn't be as obtrusive but there was nothing that I could do about the pants. But wait, there's more. I also remembered I had taken off my sleeves last week and hadn't cleaned out my bag since then so my arms became covered as I pulled my beige coloured sleeves up to my armpits. (Yes I have just sleeves...okay so they're old rolling pin covers but they could be sleeves and they kept my arms warm when I needed it.) Okay so I had sleeves a vest and multicoloured pants, yeah that's less noticeable. Right. Let me live in my delusions.   
So commenced my stroll towards town to find out where I had landed and if I had, in fact gone crazy since I was attacked by a puppet. 

However, as I entered the town I could hear people occasionally calling out to friends, women gossiping as they carried their baskets of who knows what, and the general buzz of noise that always seemed to go hand in hand with groups of people. It took me a few moments to notice but when I did I nearly fell over. I couldn't understand a word they were saying! 

------------------

PS. thank you for all of you who have commented...only 13 and some are multiple people...but it makes me feel special anyways.. *huggles readers* 


	5. Voices Mean You're Crazy

My thanks to M'cha Araem for her absolutely wonderful comment to me, I shall try, but not in this chapter. My apologies to everyone reading this. I'm not entirely coherent after sniffing questionable substances all day while making my Dorothy slippers and am not in the greatest mind to proofread this before I put it up. Damn nagging voices telling me to keep posting chapters... 

PS. There is a bad word in this chapter...sorry about it 

-----------------

Mind regained as a runny white nose was shoved into my face I finished my freaking out and forced myself to calm down. This wasn't as bad as it could be. Lucky for me it didn't start raining when I thought that, as lady luck often times likes to make it do when those words are uttered.   
Hold up, what is this? My attention wavered from the language differences for a moment. There was a woman riding a gazelle. Wait, where did she get a gazelle and how in the world did she train it to carry her? I certainly couldn't figure it out nor did my brain want to try. This was all a little much for it to handle, granted I was in happyville staring at all the clothing and other fun things dancing past my moving body, I was still a bit confused. I think my brain had shut down shortly after I was locked within a dark, enclosed storage room and was now hallucinating all of this. 

Ignoring the woman riding the gazelle to the edge of town I continued my way looking for the friendliest face that I could find, someone here had to know how to speak English. English was universal right? I had to be optimistic and violently forced that little voice in the back of my head that insisted that no one within walking distance knew or even knew what English was to go away. Not that it ever listened but I could ignore it for the moment if I needed to, and I did because if I started listening to it I think I was going to sit down where I was and start bawling. I was not a happy camper because my trip to happyville turned out to be not so happy. It was at this moment that I noticed that lack of my big fuzzy white shadow. Now where had that horse gone off to? Ah well, not important. I supposed that it could take care of itself, after all it had before I had run into its furry nose. 

It was far past afternoon and well into evening, I didn't know where I was, how I had gotten here, where I was going to stay for the night, or if anyone around could even understand a thing I said. I was near panicking again (yes I seem to do that a lot but leave me alone, I've had a hard day and you would be too if you were in my sneakers) but took a few deep breaths with my eyes closed then reverted back to my normal ways. I walked in the shadows of buildings as a barely noticeable lump of clothing and skin. I hunched my shoulders and ran a hand over anything I could find with some sort of texture to it. This, for some unknown reason always seemed to calm me and it was either that or running my nails across my arms, turning them red and raw in the process and that wasn't particularly a good thing to do at a time like this where people would certainly think that you've gone mad. Taken that I probably was mad but I just didn't usually let it show in a way that makes people want to lock you up in a straight jacket. So I resorted to numbing my fingertips on the walls and fences and other such things. People were starting to slowly trickle back to their houses or to the tavern or wherever they seemed to need to go. I stopped politely to let a woman dragging two sleepy children pass before crossing the street to a stone structure that looked as if it had seen better days. Gently I let my fingers wonder over the stones as I shuffled along. 

Fire, people running, a small tingling feeling along the surface of my skin then an explosion flashed before my eyes. Flames, hurt, fear, greed in the form of a tall shadow of a man who's face flared for a moment then was lost in a mess of more flames and anger embodied in a frenzy of feathers. Then it was gone as I yanked my fingers away from the stone as if it had been heated by that same fire that had shown before me moments ago. I just stared at my fingers for a few seconds before I looked up at the stone then over at the few people still about. No one had noticed anything, not that I had expected them to, they never did see what I often saw. I touched the stone again but nothing was there this time and I knew that what I had seen had already happened. I had seen the past. I did that sometimes, but mostly with clothing. Sometimes I could stare at a mannequin that happened to be wearing an old garment and it would come to life before my eyes. A bit like the movie only not really. Everything was overlaid upon what was really there, and that was just a mannequin staring out at me with blank, plastic eyes. Puppets did that too, sometimes, but I tried not to think about it, they were scary when they did that. Not that it had mattered now that the sun was near setting, I had not eaten anything since breakfast, I had nowhere to go, I had been abandoned in a town without a comprehension of English by a big white horse and I was starting to feel sorry for myself again. I needed to stop moping and do something about my situation. 

Gathering every bit of courage that I possessed and borrowing a bit from the stones I walked determinedly towards the large wooden door to the cottage that those stones belonged to...the large open door?! Carefully I peeked inside to come face to face with a thin blonde woman who looked to be as if she was going to close the door. "Oh!" I stepped back immediately and regressed with trying to blend into the scenery. The next thought that hit me was that she had been the one riding the gazelle and stepped back again. Whump. I hit something warm. Something warm and fuzzy and breathing? Spinning frantically around I found myself face to face with said Gazelle. Okay, not quite a gazelle. Not the same markings, or at least any markings that I had ever seen before. Still I wondered suspiciously how I didn't notice it there before and how it had managed to sneak up on me. I would notice something like that, especially something that big sneaking around. Eyes big, I stepped back to my previous position halfway between the horned creature and the woman that had ridden in on it. Then there came a voice, whom I assumed to be the woman, however I couldn't understand a thing said like I hadn't been able to since I had arrived here. She said something again and I just shook my head. 

"Do you speak English?" I asked quietly but she only seemed confused and said something else in a language that was definitely not the same as the first as it flowed off her tongue in a peculiar rhythm of music that wasn't present in the first. I only shook my head again as she tried a third language and had the sneaking suspicion that I had some confused stupid looking expression spread across my face. It wouldn't have surprised me at least, I always somehow manage to look stupid. 

The blonde just looked a bit frustrated. Then said something to the creature at my back, or it at least appeared to be directed at it. 

: Do you need some help?: came a smooth voice within my head. Now any normal person would have looked around to find out who was speaking to them but when have I ever presented myself as normal? I just looked at bit worried, I had never heard that particular 'voice' in my head before and I didn't know if it was malicious like some of the others. Yes, I heard voices. And yes, some of them didn't like me too much. 

: I am most definitely not malicious.: 

: And how would I know that?: I thought back at it used to the voices listening in upon my thoughts. 

: You cannot lie mind to mind.: 

Wait. This seemed hauntingly familiar. Where had I heard that line before? Oh that's right, my favourite books. Hold up, that would have to mean that someone was speaking to me, directly into my mind because my voices tended to shy away from quoting things that I knew. Since it didn't appear to be the woman from the vague expression of exasperation upon her features so the only other likely candidate would be the not-gazelle. 

So what did I do? I whirled around to face it with the question suspended in my brain. 

:Of course it's me talking to you.: it came slightly annoyed. :Now do you want help or not?: 

Ever so slowly I nodded, my mind not quite wanting to wrap itself around the obvious. Thunk. My brain suddenly felt as if it had been hit by a two by four and I wanted to fall over, except I was already on the ground appearing to have crumpled to the floor moments before. "Ow" 

"I know it hurts but I think I have some headache potions in here that's still good" 

"excuse me?!" I stared at the woman as if she had just told me politely that I had grown another head. Since when could I speak happyvillian? 

"Headache potion" she pulled me to my feet and led me through the large wooden door, shutting it tightly after me. "Here, take this" she thrust a small jug into my hands which I promptly swallowed the continence of. I was used to headaches that made my brain want to explode but that didn't mean that I wanted to keep them. Slowly I let the foul tasting liquid do it's work. "I'm sorry I suppose this all must be a bit confusing but since you obviously didn't speak Valdemaran or any other language that I know and you seemed to need help of a sorts I figured that it would be best if you could tell me what you needed. So I had Delia give you the language." She told me patiently waiting for my answer to a question that I hadn't known had been asked. 

My brain was having trouble functioning and was currently going into overload. Okay so the not-gazelle gave me a language...wait.. Had she said Valdemaran?!?!?!?! "excuse me?!!!!" my brow furrowed and every attempt at some sort of thought process stopped suddenly. "VALDEMAR?!?!" 

"Yes" she said slowly looking quite a bit more worried for me. 

"Valdemar" came the second squeak. 

"Yes, Valdemar" 

"excuse me?!" 

"Um.." she definitely looked about as perplexed as I felt. 

Valdemar. The place within my favourite books. The book I had just been reading. The coolest place ever with birdbonding hawkbrothers and spirit horses called companions. Books, they should have just been books.   
"Am I delusional?" I asked suddenly aloud as she peered at me then seemed to peer through me in a creepy way that seemed to emulate me spacing out. 

"I don't see any sign of you being sick if that's what you mean" she told me still with the worried look upon her. 

"Fuck me, how in gods did that happen?" I quietly spoke to myself as I tended to do and used an extreamly unamerican saying as I also tended to do in times like these. (Damn me watching too many British and Irish set movies). "Um...so where exactly am I then?" 

"This is Errold's Grove." 

"Oh..." so this was Errold's Grove. Nice. "And you would be?" 

"Oh, Keisha, I'm sorry I didn't even realize that I hadn't introduced myself" She smiled a little as I seemed to be gathering my wits and making coherent sentences. Score for me and making sentences. 

A small squeak escaped. I was in a book in a fictional place talking to a fictional person. Okay I was completely insane. I mean usually I can tell the difference between a hallucination and reality but this was just crazy! This couldn't have been a hallucination and was in no way shape or form a daydream. In a way it was a little bit exciting once you got past the confusing part of it but it was also extremely scary to a person who liked control and liked to know what happened. That person happened to be me, but at least it was better than being stuck in a dark room with puppets. 

"Umm......" came out as I slowly began to form working thoughts again "hi...."   
She smiled at me and radiated comfort.   
Okay, stop using empathy on me Keisha, it doesn't work right with me, believe me I've tried. "My name's.." I trailed off uncertainly then restarted and offered quietly "People call me Mouse." Alright, so I have an odd nickname that I like better than my real name, get off my back about it. 

"Hi" she smiled again...okay...so good so far, well except for that annoying tense silence where she wanted to know what was going on and I didn't want to tell her without her having to pry it out of me with a crowbar. 

"I got lost" I finally offered which really was true, I didn't know where I was till she told me so that in my book is lost.   
"I need a place to sleep." I told her too hoping to play upon the kindness of her heart and get her to offer up her cottage to me. Hey it could work and I prolly had just enough empathy to get her to feel sorry for me without her noticing. Yes I have empathy, my friends used to yell at me because when I was depressed or down I would radiate unhappy vibes and depress most of our lunch table, granted they never did yell at me when I was all happy and brought joy to them, darn freeloaders. Hey, I'm allowed to believe in weird stuff like that. I'm eccentric, remember? But right at this moment, I was hoping that she would let me stay, at least until I figured out how I got here and how in the name of molding moose livers I was going to get back. 

------------------


	6. Runny Noses

------------------

Morning came just like any other morning and promptly at 7 I woke all at once. (Yes I'm odd and wake up freakishly early naturally no matter what. No I can't stop it..I wish I could every once in a while though, you know, like the times that I don't get to sleep until 4 or 5 in the morning)You always read the stories about where the person is put into an extraordinary situation far from home and everything that they know only to wake up and for a few moments in the morning they forget their predicament, well, that didn't happen. I'm not one of those people. I knew where I was the moment I woke which again never happened slowly but all at once. I was awake or asleep, there never had been anything inbetween, just like most things with me. 

"Morning" my host greeted me "You ready to earn that keep? I have a few things that I need to do today and I just might let you help"

Let me help? Who was she kidding, she wasn't going to goad me into thinking that I was doing her a favour when all I was doing was paying her back for giving me supper and a roof over the night. I definitely wasn't that easily conned, but I didn't take the opportunity to point that out to her. I've learned that when most people underestimate you it can come in handy later. 

So I 'helped' her out. 

---------------------

"Jovian!" Keisha looked a little startled as a dark haired boy in light gray clothing approached her "home long have you been home for?"

"Oh..umm..a week and a half. I'll be heading back soon, though."

"Oh well, tell your mother hello for me and that if she needs anything more for your sister Kelsie to come to me in the next two days. I'll be here until then." The blonde smiled at the boy and I simply looked between the two of them.

At that moment Jovian stumbled forwards then immediately turned around to glare at the big snickering white horse that had apparently pushed him. "Corena!" he glared at the creature then turned with a glance at Keshia before his eyes settled upon me and he looked properly embarrassed. "Sorry" he mumbled, glancing at the woman next to me then back at me while the horse pushed him again with her furry white nose. 

"Oh..." I stared and trailed off as my brain finally caught up with the situation by putting two and two together to figure out that Jovian was a herald trainee and Corena was his companion. A very familiar looking companion at that. Hey! Wait a minute! I remember that fuzzy white muzzle!

"YOU!" My exasperation expressed though a finger pointed at the looming white creature. The finger promptly changed directions then as it leveled at the shaggy haired boy next to it "You're insane demon likes to eat things upon my person!" my short lived tirade then trailed off as I realized something "And lead me to civilization...." I finished weakly. Stupid horse, it was smirking at me. I could feel it. 

"Ah.." the boy had the decency to look sheepish "Core, likes to eat things. I never did break her of that nasty habit." His green eyes unfocused for a moment then returned to me "She says that she was only trying to help. Said you were radiating distress enough to disturb.." He flushed and glanced at his companion seemingly embarrassed "..to disturb her" he finished lamely with a slight squicky shudder as I could only imagine what she had been talking about and the kinds of images she could be sending him. Squicky for me even and I wasn't even on the receiving end of it. That's what I got for possessing a really good imagination with a guarantee for a nice mental image at the least convenient moment.

"Ahem?" Keisha once again gathered both our attentions "was there something else?" She asked Jovian pointedly, as a way of telling him that she had things that she needed to get done. 

"oh...um" the boy blushed as Core tugged at his sleeve. He then looked at me as he said his next monumental words "Corena says that you have to come with us"

"What?" My mouth hung open in shock and even Keisha looked surprised by what he said, though that didn't last long for it faded into a somewhat knowing smile. Interesting that. 

"You have to come with us" the trainee repeated while his companion stuck her furry, runny nose into my face and snorted. It was laughing at me again. I could feel it. Stupid horse. 

I glared at Corena for good measure before I even considered answering Jovian. "Why?" 

"Oh..umm.." the herald in training looked a little bit flustered if not a bit confused "well....I'm not entirely sure why but she says that you have to come and that she wont leave without you.." The boy then grinned a little "then she told me that if you don't voluntarily come with us that she'll have me knock you out, tie you up and throw you over the saddle because you have to come.."

An eyebrow was raised as my attention went back to that smirking white beast beside him "really now? That's interesting..."

"You know" the first words that Keisha had spoken since the boy's utterance of kidnaping me put a halt to anything else that I would have said "I think you should go with him"

Was she trying to get rid of me?

"I did sense some empathy from you earlier and even if Core doesn't give you any more reason to come with them than she wants to eat more of your clothing you can at least get some training from the Collegeum in controlling that."

Death glare now leveled at said blonde book character, crafty little weasel that she was. She was definitely trying to get rid of me and I did not like being manhandled like this. Everyone was deciding for me what I should do and it got old rather quickly. 

Big white nose in my face! Core, I had forgotten about her. That crazy horse probably knew what I was thinking and trying to distract me. Well it wouldn't work. I am undistractable. Yup, no distraction here. You know that is a nice shade of blue on that woman's skirt. Yeah, indistractable my left shoe. So as I was pondering how to make that colour blue a nice runny nose once again took my attention away as a throat was cleared. 

"So?" Jovian looked at me with hopeful eyes. Big hopeful puppy dog eyes. Stupid puppy eyes. I kick you puppy eyes.

"Well..." I trailed off in my indecision "I suppose it can't hurt...." And it couldn't, Haven is always a good goal in situations like these. 

The boy instantly looked partially relieved and partially excited, the damned horse was dancing merrily and Keisha looked extremely pleased. Yay for them. Too bad I all of a sudden feel as if I'm being magically herded towards something that I'm not entirely going to like. 

------------------


	7. I Hate Allergies

I will finish this, promise. I just don't always have the time to work on it or the ideas to work with because sometimes you just don't have those oreos and milk to bribe muses with.

Yeah...so riding a horse is definitely not my forte. I know how to mount one and that is about it. Technically I know how to make them go too but I've only ridden a horse once. That one time I think my horse was broken because it wouldn't go but when it did, it decided to walk undeterred into a lake. Now you see why I'm not too fond of horses? Yeah, I thought you wouldn't, some stuff other people just don't understand like the chicken story I made up once about why the chicken crossed the road. I don't remember it all but I know it started out so he could get some nuts from this squirrel then he got picked up by a trucker and taken to a bar and there was something about a dead baby eating a dog and then the chicken was really a member of the Russian mob and went back to Russia to beat up an alligator then make boots out of him...and something about these two Chinese guys eating at an Italian restaurant. I don't know, it was just special and no one quite understood it, but it still happened. That and there is just no comfortable position on a horse. Comfortable and horse should not even be in the same sentence, well at least for me.  
Miserable, miserable, miserable.  
Oh wait! Yes, now I remember. There is a dark haired boy currently sitting in front of me that got me into this mess. I think he should be miserable with me. Yes! Fear my evilness of plotting goodome... Said boy was now being poked sharply in the ribcage and being asked if we were there yet every five minutes. Hey, it was something to do. Do you know how boring sitting on a horse all day can be if you let it?  
Yeah, me neither. I'm easily amused.  
So between me poking him and asking him questions about Haven we made wonderful time which I'm sure didn't have anything at all to do with the fact that my poking strayed to the big furry whiteness below me every now and again. That and if in a moment of sugary giddiness you threaten to make daisy chains for all, people tend to see it your way.  
Unfortunately for me I happened to conviently forget that water way back when wasn't generally on the list of beverages, now just add the word alcoholic to it and 95 percent of the time it was there. Now why did the gods and goddesses have to pick the person who's only allergy is to such things to come to such a place? I have no clue but when you see them could you kick them for me? I'm sure that it would get some kind of message to them...even if they do turn you into a smoking pile of dust. Thanks. Now where were we? Oh yes, Life sucks, I can't drink anything, and the gods like laughing at me with their furry white sidekicks chuckling in the background. Stupid horse. Stupid ale. Must smash head into something hard. Nope, not working. Heralds don't work very well. Not useful for bashing head in.grumble grumble grumble...

After much more traveling than I'd like and much more riding than any muscle in my body was used to and much more cider than I would want to consume we reached Haven...And Jovian, my damned kidnapper didn't even look uncomfortable. You'd think that all that poking would have at least given him a few bruises but noooo...He's just as cheerful as ever. And don't even get me started about that wannabe daemon in the furry white horse suit.  
At this point in time it would be an understatement to say that I wasn't in the best of moods by the time we arrived at this oh so wonderful city. The only thing about cities is that one of their requirements is that they have people, lots of people. I believe we already discussed the topic of people. I don't particularly like them. They're a lot like puppets, in fact, only people are less cunning than puppets and have far more conspicuous plans to rule the world. So this was me trying to meld with my captors until we reached a large brick wall with a gate complete with guard that had to signal the palace grounds. Yes! Made it! Not been eaten by cannibalistic puppets..er I mean people, not been consumed by the fires of Tartarus, and only nearly been trampled by a sadistic white horse. All in all quite a lovely journey through flea infested fields of flesh eating rabbits and forests of evil bone crunching three headed giants...yes. Okay, so not quite..but it was close! And all for what? A suspicious looking guard and utterly massive looking buildings that wouldn't think twice about swallowing me whole. Perfect. And to complete the ensemble there are two cheerful white things waiting on the other side of said gate. Oh look they heard I was coming, how sweet. Now they're going to off me with a spoon. Just what I always wanted.


End file.
